Undercover investigation found some Craig and Klawock establishmentssold to underage buyers

Undercover investigators sent people under 21 into bars and marijuana shops around Prince of Wales Island last month, and every business they checked sold to the underage buyers.

Alaska State Troopers and the state's Alcohol & Marijuana Control Office ran the compliance checks July 30 around Craig and Klawock, according to a Department of Public Safety dispatch. All of the businesses were non-compliant, selling alcohol or marijuana to the underage buyers, and the two agencies issued seven infractions in all, with warnings where appropriate.

Three establishments were cited on allegations of furnishing alcohol to someone under 21, AMCO told the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board in an Aug. 26 enforcement memo.

The office is inspecting less than it was. It ran 293 licensed-premises inspections between mid-June and late August, down about 39 percent from its pace over the prior stretch. Forty-six of those were in communities off the road system.

It has also been short-handed. Three special investigator posts, in Anchorage, Fairbanks and Juneau, sit vacant, and AMCO is reclassifying them after repeated failed attempts to fill them.